Top Small Business Digital Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2023
Since we’re nearing the end of another jam-packed year, it’s time we talked 2023 marketing trend predictions. The digital marketing world has seen so much this year, from the influencer craze to TikTok’s popularity explosion, and so much more.
But what will be the newest marketing trends?
As we approach a new year, it’s time for small businesses to be on the prowl for the next digital marketing trends and start planning their marketing strategy for next year.
Keep reading to gain insight into experts’ predictions for the top small business digital marketing trends to be on the lookout for in 2023.
Let’s dig in!
A Seamless Customer Experience
Think about this for a second: how many different ways do you interact with a brand? Let’s list a few:
Well, you’ve first got their company website you can visit, and maybe even an app.
Most brands usually have, at minimum, one active social media channel, such as Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And obviously, some brands have all the socials under the sun.
Have you ever received an email or text message from the brand, like a newsletter or promotional (a.k.a discount code)? If so, that’s another brand interaction.
That’s already five different touchpoints, not including any interactions you may have with them in person. This just goes to show that customers don’t engage with brands through just one method or channel – they expect a “unified marketing front” across the board.
Their customer experience should be complete and seamless no matter which channels they interact with. Now, two broad concepts will be at play here to accomplish this: Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) and Omnichannel Marketing.
Let me help explain. Say you saw an Instagram ad promoting a great discount on a brand’s product. You visit their website but find a completely different deal or, worse, you can’t find any discount at all.
Now instead, let’s apply the concept of IMC. That Instagram ad you clicked on now pulls you to that exact product with the discount already applied. You also see a promotional banner on their website and maybe even get an email about the same promotion. **Cue the applause**
Marketers use IMC to ensure their campaign and brand message are the same across all channels, focusing on making the information as accessible as possible.
Omnichannel Marketing takes this one step further by focusing on creating a seamless customer journey, regardless of how or where they interact with your brand. This aims to connect your brick-and-mortar, online platforms, and app-based channels.
Let’s take Target, for example. Customers can shop for products on their website, the Target Circle app, and in brick-and-mortar retail stores across the US. Customers can use their app to locate products within the store, place their orders online, track their rewards, and initiate an in-store return.
This ultimately provides the customer with a personalized and dynamic multi-channel shopping experience.
While most small businesses aren’t quite behemoths like Target, understanding the customer journey is still vital. Marketers must understand the buying journey from start to finish to create this unique customer experience.
Brands must take note of each touchpoint they have with customers, from browsing to buying. A tried-and-true method to keep this all straight is to create a customer journey map.
“A customer journey map is a visual representation of how a customer acts, thinks, and feels through the buying process.”
Each touchpoint should be fully integrated with your other channels, ensuring your messaging is consistent across the different channels. Remember to be focused on making the overall customer experience the best it can be, no matter which channels are used.
2. User-Generated Content
Have you ever read through a product review? Watched an unboxing video from your favorite YouTuber? Seen someone sharing their latest shopping haul on Instagram or TikTok?
If you’ve seen any of these, odds are you’ve seen user-generated content (UGC).
“User-generated content (also known as UGC or consumer-generated content) is original, brand-specific content created by customers and published on social media or other channels.”
UGC can come in many shapes and forms, such as photos, videos, product reviews, social media content, and even blog posts. Experts predict that user-generated content will quickly become the new word-of-mouth, so buckle up!
This type of content can be made by just about anyone – customers and brand loyalists tend to be the most prominent groups of contributors. The leading indicator that you’re engaging with UGC is that the brand itself does NOT create it.
90% of consumers reported that authenticity is vital when deciding if they like and support a brand. A recent report found that consumers find user-generated content 2.4 times more authentic than branded content – people are so tired of seeing the same old ads and want something new.
Stackla survey finds that consumers and marketers disagree on the authenticity of branded content vs user-generated content. (Graphic: Business Wire)
UGC is that something – this type of content is created by real people and provides social proof that your product or service is worth buying. People are far more likely to buy something if they see someone like them using your product, influencing them to make the purchase.
Similarly, UGC acts as a trust signal to customers. A study found that over 50% of millennials base their purchase decisions on recommendations from friends and family.
UGC is an excellent tool since it’s created independently of the brand and feels like a personal recommendation from the creator.
It can also help you establish brand loyalty and a community surrounding your brand. People enjoy being a part of something bigger than themselves, and if they like your product, they’ll want to help you grow your brand.
American Eagle uses user-generated content to create a community surrounding their fashion brand.
As you enter the world of UGC, there are a few ground rules to keep in mind. First, always credit the original creator and ask permission to repost – this saves you from copyright hot water and maintains goodwill.
You always want to be strategic with how you use this content and how it fits into your campaigns. It may not land well with your audience if it seems out of place and random.
3. Video, video, video
I might sound like a broken record, but video is everything! Without a doubt, video content will continue to reign over its static counterpart in the coming year.
Video content is far more consumable and versatile than most all other types of content. You can utilize it on your socials, website, and content marketing strategy.
A Renderforest Survey found that video content helped increase brand awareness by 70%, traffic by 51%, and sales by 34%.
A great way to leverage this is by embedding supplemental or explanatory videos into your blog. Later does this well in their blog (see below), where the video helps reinforce what you wrote or gives someone more options for consuming the information.
Adding video to your social media content strategy will also be a significant growth opportunity for brands in 2023. Video posts keep people’s attention for longer, increase product knowledge, and help you rank higher in search.
Right now, we’re seeing the algorithm favoring reels more and more. Experts concur that reels will continue to be well-loved by consumers and the algorithm.
Unfortunately, most marketers know this is on the horizon, so videos will start to saturate the feed. The key is the beat the algorithm. So, how do you do this?
Well, it’s all about creating high-quality videos relatable to your audience and eliciting the desired emotion. It can be helpful to use trending audios and refrain from reposting TikToks on Instagram or Facebook.
Bonus points for incorporating user-generated videos in your social media strategy!
The opportunities for using video are seemingly limitless, but here are a few ideas to get your gears turning:
Create small video snippets based on blogs to post on your socials
New product usage or education
“Coming soon” teaser videos
Exciting company announcement video
Create an educational series for your socials or email list
4. More Interactive Content
Static posts and passive content consumption are quickly becoming things of the past. Your audience wants to be involved and consume attention-grabbing and exciting content!
This is where interactive content comes into play! Interactive content is any marketing material that conveys its message by encouraging active user participation rather than passive consumption.
The Content Marketing Institute found that 44% of marketers strongly agreed that interactive content is more attention-grabbing than static content.
I’m not saying static content is no longer effective, but interactive content can elevate your marketing strategy, boost engagement and drive more sales.
It’s really about making content more of a two-way engagement instead of just throwing a bunch of information in front of the consumer – active engagement is critical here.
The more actively engaged a person is with your content, the better they are at retaining and remembering your message or brand. For example, if you’re looking for a new skincare product, you might recall a particular brand for their customized skincare quiz.
There are a variety of active engagement techniques that you can use throughout your entire digital presence. Here are a few great examples:
Polls or having followers ask you questions on your Instagram story
Quiz on your website to help someone find a personalized recommendation
Calculator (think mortgage or savings calculator)
Contests or giveaways requiring people to take specific actions to be eligible
Interactive infographic with clickable/expandable elements for more information
I recommend starting small and experimenting to determine what works best for your audience and brand. If you throw everything under the sun at your content strategy, you won’t know what is working and what isn’t (and this just is never a good way to approach strategy).
Again, working strategically is essential here. You should look to use interactive tools and elements to enhance your brand storytelling and make a positive impact on your audience.
You need to also focus on your buyers’ journey (as I mentioned earlier) by matching different pieces of interactive content to various points in the journey.
In the early stage of the buyer’s journey (awareness), contests, games, and interactive infographics were the most effective tools.
Interactive white papers and calculators were found to be the best elements to use in the consideration stage to help educate potential customers.
And finally, a configurator is the most effective interactive tool for encouraging a purchase to be made. Customers love to see a product that can be customized to their unique needs.
5. Experiential Marketing
As health and safety restrictions slowly retreat, Agency EA found that 81% of marketers plan to return to hosting live experiences this next year.
This means we’ll see more experiential or engagement marketing in the future. Experiential marketing essentially allows your brand to step beyond the screen and gives your customers a chance to participate in an in-person branded experience.
Experiential marketing tactics fully immerse their consumers within the brand or product. This allows customers to enjoy a hands-on, interactive experience instead of pushing an ad to purchase something.
These types of experiences usually include captivating displays, immersive activities, pop-ups, or experiential activations. You don’t have to break the bank here – you can be very intentional with the experience you create to best portray your brand, products, or services.
No matter what you decide to do, the biggest no-no is making the event too sales-pitchy. You should be focused less on selling and more on building awareness about a larger issue important to your brand.
And, of course, you’ll need to use your creativity to bring your brand to life. This experience should be full of exciting, photo-worthy opportunities prompting attendees to want to share it with others – hint, hint, user-generated content!
Netflix’s Bridgerton Experience
Netflix’s Bridgerton Experience was (and continues to be) a massively successful experiential marketing event where attendees are transported to a ballroom decorated in the Regency-era style.
This immersive, interactive experience is filled with live music inspired by the Bridgerton soundtrack, ballroom dancing, plenty of photo opportunities, and several Bridgerton-themed activities.
It even helps to pick a partner your audience might be interested in but isn’t a competitor. Think of unique ways to pair your products to create a fun co-branded experience.
Supergoop! x Sunscoop summer collaboration
Supergoop! and Sunscoop NYC's summer collaboration is an excellent example. Beloved sunscreen brand, Supergoop! partnered with Sunscoop, a plant-based, allergen-friendly ice cream brand to create the Suntruck.
The limited-time co-branded experience on wheels served up a collaborative Sweet Sunshine ice cream flavor inspired by Glowscreen and handed out complimentary sunscreen and ice cream samples. Bringing two complimentary products together like this was an extremely effective and fun way to give people a summery, branded experience.
Experiential marketing is a star at boosting brand awareness. 65% of attendees report that live events improve their understanding of a product or service.
Similarly, 80% said that live demos and free samples help motivate their purchasing decision. This reinforces the importance of hands-on encounters with your products.
This type of marketing also humanizes your brand and creates a positive brand image. 91% of attendees agreed that they had a more positive opinion about the brand that was promoted at the event.
Be on the lookout for ways to incorporate experiential marketing into your marketing strategy to create a lasting impact, encourage brand loyalty, and increase customer lifetime value.
While notable, I must add that these trends are only a handful of the MANY we’ll likely come across next year.
With that being said, what trends are you hoping to see in 2023?
Marketing strategy is my jam. Reach out to me for a free consultation where we can chat about how we can incorporate these things into your 2023 marketing strategy!
